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International metal band Blackwelder will release their debut album, “Survival Of The Fittest“, on April 24, 2015 via GoldenCore Records/ZYX Music. The “Survival Of The Fittest” cover artwork can be seen below.

“Survival Of The Fittest” track listing:

01. The Night Of New Moon
02. Spaceman
03. Adeturi
04. Freeway Of Life
05. Inner Voice
06. With Flying Colors
07. Remember The Time
08. Play Some More
09. Oriental Spell
10. Judgement Day

International power prog metal band BLACKWELDER have announced “Survival Of The Fittest” as the title of their upcoming debut album, due to be released on April 24, 2015 via German label GoldenCore Records/ZYX Music.

Hailing from the four corners of the world, BLACKWELDER is a brand new metal experience featuring some of the top names in Power Prog Metal today. Arguably the best singer in all of metal, Ralf Scheepers (PRIMAL FEAR, ex-GAMMA RAY) fronts this extraordinary outfit at the top of his game, alongside guitar virtuoso Andrew Szus (SEVEN SERAPHIM). Bjorn Englen (DIO DISCIPLES, ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) and Aquiles Priester (PRIMAL FEAR, ex-ANGRA) round out this unstoppable team of what quite possibly could be one of the greatest lineups metal has ever seen.

International power prog metal band BLACKWELDER signs worldwide management deal with Germany’s ROCK’N’GROWL MANAGEMENT. Hailing from the four corners of the world, BLACKWELDER is a brand new metal experience featuring some of the top names in Power Prog Metal today. Arguably the best singer in all of metal, Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear, ex-Gamma Ray) fronts this extraordinary outfit at the top of his game, alongside guitar virtuoso Andrew Szus (Seven Seraphim). Bjorn Englen (Dio Disciples, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen) and Aquiles Priester (Hangar, ex-Angra) round out this unstoppable team of what quite possibly could be one of the greatest lineups metal has ever seen.

From DESERT: “Horns up, Warriors! Now we can officially confirm, that one of the special guests on our upcoming album will be the one and only – Mr. Ralf Scheepers ! The legendary voice of Primal Fear, Gamma Ray and Tyran’ Pace. Ralf kindly agreed to contribute his voice to one of the songs on our new record. We are still excited, that one of the best Metal singers in the world, who’s voice built our musical taste something like for 20 years, had sang one of the most killing and powerful songs we ever wrote !!! We have no patience to show you the results of this collaboration!”

Ralf Scheepers

Interviewed by EvilG

Promotional pics by Frontiers Records

There are many great vocalists that come to mind in heavy metal. The legends like Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, and Bruce Dickinson are often the top names mentioned in reverence. Well, a fourth name should be added to that list and that name is Ralf Scheepers. The ex-Gamma Ray singer, Primal fear vocalist, and now solo artist has one of the strongest and best voices in heavy metal. Ralf’s new solo album sees him mainly sticking to what we’re known him for, but also throwing in a few twists that you would not hear from a Primal Fear record. We caught up with Ralf to discuss his solo album and to get an update on current activity withing the Primal Fear camp.

There are a handful of bands that have come out in recent years who I not only "like" but who I have added to the pile of bands that I religiously follow. One of those bands is Primal Fear. In my opinion, their latest album, BLACK SUN, is easily one of the best releases of 2002! If you love heavy aggressive power metal with ripping lead guitars and top notch vocals, this should be a band you are already intimately familiar with. Thanks to the people at Nuclear Blast Records I was recently given the opportunity to talk with the vocalist of Primal Fear about the new album and the band.

Scheepers has built himself quite a reputation for being one of the finest German heavy metal singers. With a career spanning three decades (he debuted with TYRAN PACE‘s “Eye to Eye” album in 1983), Scheepers sung on true power metal manifesto releases such as GAMMA RAY‘s first three albums before starting PRIMAL FEAR in 1997 with Mat Sinner. His voice is high-pitched and tenor-esque and his abilities were often compared to some of the finest hard rock and heavy metal singers ever (from Rob Halford to Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan). In addition, oth HELLOWEEN and JUDAS PRIEST considered him for the singer position in their respective bands.

Over the years Ralf wrote and collected a few tracks that did not fit exactly in the PRIMAL FEAR concept. As often happens, he was just waiting for the right chance to present itself and that happened when he, his buddy Mat Sinner and Frontiers Records president Serafino Perugino sat together and discussed plans for the future in… 2007! Over three years later and the results are finally here and in Scheepers‘ words “I’m really proud of the result!”

Scheepers‘ artistic intention was to please the existing PRIMAL FEAR fan base, but he also wanted to add some surprises and include as much variation as he could in the recording. So he went ahead and covered one of his own favorite — albeit atypical — JUDAS PRIEST songs, “Before the Dawn”, and for the first time, Ralf played all instruments on a track, except the fantastic guitar solos added by Victor Smolski (RAGE). “Compassion” is another special track with a very positive vibe, recorded only with acoustic instruments. Two of the songs were composed with former PRIMAL FEAR guitarist Stefan Leibing, while GAMMA RAY‘s Kai Hansen added guitar on “The Pain Of The Accused”. HALFORD‘s “Metal” Mike Chlasciak played lead guitar on the album opener “Locked In The Dungeon”. One more highlight is the vocal duet with Tim “Ripper” Owens (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH) on “Remission Of Sin”. Additional guest appearances include Sander Gommans (AFTER FOREVER), Snowy Shaw (KING DIAMOND, THERION, DREAM EVIL) and Scheepers‘ PRIMAL FEAR bandmates Magnus Karlsson, Alex Beyrodt and Mat Sinner. The album was mixed and mastered by Achim Köhler and produced by Mat Sinner.

“Scheepers” track listing:

01. Locked In The Dungeon
02. Remission Of Sin
03. Cyberfreak
04. The Fall
05. Doomsday
06. Saints Of The Rock
07. Before The Dawn
08. Back On The Track
09. Dynasty
10. The Pain Of The Accused
11. Play With The Fire
12. Compassion

The forthcoming solo album from PRIMAL FEAR singer Ralf Scheepers is in the very final stages of production. Some very special guests agreed to appear – the list includes guitarists “Metal” Mike Chlasciak (HALFORD), Kai Hansen (GAMMA RAY), Sander Gommans (AFTER FOREVER) and Magnus Karlsson (PRIMAL FEAR, ALLEN/LANDE). Powerhouse American vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH) is dueting with Scheepers in the track “Remission Of Sin“, Swedish multi-instrumentalist Snowy Shaw (THERION, DREAM EVIL, KING DIAMOND, DIMMU BORGIR) appears on drums and PRIMAL FEAR’s Mat Sinner is playing bass on the entire LP and produced the album. Achim Koehler is currently in the final stages of the mixing session and will shortly be mastering the production.
Scheepers revealed that his upcoming solo album will include a remake of his song “Saints Of Rock” Scheepers originally recorded with his band TYRAN PACE and a cover version of the JUDAS PRIEST classic “Before The Dawn’. “‘Saints Of Rock’ is gonna be, of course, a little bit more modern and updated than it was [when the original version was recorded] in 1986,” he explained. “I mean, right now we have much more possibilities to make songs sound a little bit more modern, starting with the drum sound and the bass sounds.” He added, “I think ‘Before The Dawn’ pretty much is a straight cover, but the first song I’m playing (nearly) all instruments — just a little more orchestral things going on. Vocal-wise, I just added a harmony vocals, plus the two outstanding guitar solos by maestro VICTOR SMOLSKI (RAGE). The album is like a trip through my entire career from hard driven crushing metal, groovy heavy beats, orchestral epic to stripped down basic songs and of course some nice surprises!”

The musical direction of his forthcoming solo CD is more diverse than PRIMAL FEAR, from the hardest to the softest tones. The album was recently presented to the German press and some of the reactions included

“The vocals and the songwriting are just terrific and you’ve never experienced Ralf Scheepers so relaxed. The album is a hit! Does the world needs a solo album of the Primal Fear singer? Yes, of course!” – Birgit Braeckle (Breakout)

About the style of the solo effort, Primal Fear and SINNER bassist Mat Sinner – who is playing bass on the entire record and producing – told BraveWords.com recently: “In part it’s very metal. Very metal. So it will not be Ralf’s ballad album. There were some ballads where Ralf was showing a different kind of music, his talent in music, because he’s playing all the instruments on one song, for example. So you hear him playing guitar, keyboards, so it’s very interesting. But overall I will say it’s a very tough metal album.”

Swedish guitarist Magnus Karlsson (PRIMAL FEAR, STARBREAKER, LAST TRIBE) has finished laying down his parts for the forthcoming solo album from Ralf Scheepers of German power metallers PRIMAL FEAR. According to a posting on the PRIMAL FEAR web site, “Magnus delivered his guitar parts on some songs of the album and did a killer job as always. Just some more lead guitars are missing by some other great players and we’re ready to mix the album after the forthcoming [PRIMAL FEAR] European tour!”

As previously reported, powerhouse American vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (HAIL!, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, BEYOND FEAR, JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH) will make a guest appearance on Scheepers’ forthcoming CD. Owens will be heard dueting with Scheepers in the track “Remission Of Sin”. Other guest musicians expected to appear on the album include Swedish multi-instrumentalist Snowy Shaw (DIMMU BORGIR, THERION, DREAM EVIL, KING DIAMOND, MERCYFUL FATE) on drums, Sander Gommans (AFTER FOREVER, HDK) on guitar and PRIMAL FEAR’s Mat Sinner playing bass on the entire LP and producing. A photo shoot with Alex Kuehr for the CD’s cover took place in early July in Germany.

In a recent interview with the “Metalzone” radio show (web site) with Kostas Purevil Kyriakakis and Helena Mihailidou, Scheepers revealed that his upcoming solo album will include a remake of his song “Saints Of Rock” from Scheepers’ pre-PRIMAL FEAR band TYRAN PACE and a cover version of “Before The Dawn’ from JUDAS PRIEST. “‘Saints Of Rock’ is gonna be, of course, a little bit more modern than it was [when the original version was recorded] in 1986,” he explained. “I mean, right now we have much more possibilities to make songs sound a little bit more modern, starting with the drum sound and the bass sounds — having a much more distorted sound.” He added, “I think ‘Before The Dawn’ pretty much is a [straight] cover — [there’s] just a little more orchestral things going on, I have more strings in the song compared to the JUDAS PRIEST [original]. Back then there wasn’t much strings going on. I think they even have a piano [in the original version], which I don’t have. I have strings and I have this atmosphere stuff going on. Vocal-wise, I just added a harmony at the last bridge before last chorus, I added a harmony which is not on the original, but that’s the basic difference.”

In a June 2010 interview with Metal Assault, Scheepers stated about the musical direction of his forthcoming solo CD, “It’s more diverse [than PRIMAL FEAR], you can say.” He added, “In the beginning I had those ballads that we couldn’t use for PRIMAL FEAR because they might be too mellow, but now we’ve started to write together on it. Basically, it’s my ideas on it, but I have a great team, with Mat and Magnus and some other members — Sander [Gommans], the ex-AFTER FOREVER guitarist, helped me a lot. It’s a good variety — from the hardest to the softest tones.”

PRIMAL FEAR recently released a new live DVD, “16.6 – All Over The World” (recorded in various locations between September and November 2009), and a live CD, aptly titled “Live In The USA”.

PRIMAL FEAR vocalist Ralf Scheepers is working on his first solo album. An update from Primal Fear and SINNER bassist Mat Sinner – who is playing bass on the entire record and producing – reads as follows:

“After three years in the making, we will start finally with the production of Ralf’s first solo album this weekend. One of the most colorful personalities of the Swedish metal scene will nail down the drums and Studio Seven – Snowy Shaw, who is well known for his work in DREAM EVIL, THERION, KING DIAMOND, MERCYFUL FATE, NOTRE DAME etc. We’ve confirmed a photo-shoot with Alex Kühr in Germany for the cover artwork on Tuesday. More news on the progress and the impressive guestlist will be revealed soon!”

About the style of the solo effort Sinner told BraveWords.com recently: “In part it’s very metal. Very metal. So it will not be Ralf’s ballad album. There were some ballads where Ralf was showing a different kind of music, his talent in music, because he’s playing all the instruments on one song, for example. So you hear him playing guitar, keyboards, so it’s very interesting. But overall I will say it’s a very tough metal album.”

For many years now, one of my favorite bands is Primal Fear. I finally found the time to squeeze in a long overdue interview with bassist Mat and vocalist Ralf on the eve of the band’s return to North America where they will be playing a number of shows throughout the USA and Canada in May/June (2010). Most of the discussion is about their newest album, the upcoming tour, and the latest news from both Ralf and Mat.